Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Last night I went down to the Mint to check out CAST! .The Mint has a great monday night scene-- with the added bonus of no cover charge. Loved it; CAST were absolutely fantastic. I'm really glad I went (almost didnt). I talked to Nick (bass) & Karma (drums) a little afterwards, both very cool guys.

I did a few little sketches while I was there and then today did quick paintings off the sketches. A nice little challenge... the paintings are mostly from memory so the likeness isn't there but I had fun with them (I wanted to play around with acrylic on paper.). The sketches are about 2" mostly looking to capture the gestures, the paintings are about 20 x 24",Nick

I did these a month or so ago (maybe more). Underneath these paintings of 3 of the guys from Stampead are 3 landscapes that did not turn out as planned (they are euphemistically called "learning experiences" ). I dont like to throw out paintings so they get recycled/reused. Seems much more environmentally conscious than having a bonfire. So to make it fun for myself, I set up some "rules". In this case, 20 minutes each; no drawing on the canvas, no getting caught up in "likeness" and except for one accent color each, its all mud (all the left over paint on my palette from a previous painting mixed together) ... oh yeah, no paintbrushes either, just a palette knife 'cause I have a hard time painting with them. Yep thats what I do for fun..... But I really like the way they turned out. Much better than what's underneath them. Some of the landscapes show through; its probably most obvious in the bottom one.

Saturday, April 19, 2008

The double edged sword of posting your work on the internet and making it accessible to anyone: on the one hand its a method to promote your work and to participate in community dialog; on the other, it leaves you open to theft of your work.

It happens often, to writers & artists whose work is taken to build websites, presumably with a goal of generating cash by using other peoples' work and names to entice traffic that turns a profit (advertising that pays by the number of hits to a site).

Some infringement is by people who don't know any better. Most is by people who convince themselves that there is a grey area* the size of the Sahara when it comes to "referencing", "borrowing from" or "paying homage to" an artist.

If the offender is in the U.S., there is a chance to do something about it. An example is House Industries, a font house whose illustrations were stolen and reproduced (I think it was on t-shirts or glasses). They found out (a lot of the scum bags think no one will notice) and sued. The happy ending is that up until that point, House was a couple of guys working out of an apartment. The settlement provided the cash flow that helped turn them into the successful company they are today.

Unfortunately, not everyone gets the happy ending. This morning I read about a blatant theft that even the most self delusional person could not convince themselves was "OK" or "in the grey area": a publisher took the interviews of Darren Di Lieto, along with the work of dozens of other artists from a website and published a book which is being sold for $100. The book even includes a CD of the artwork. Unfortunately, the publisher is in Hong Kong (presumably-- the contact info on their site is fake).

Friday, April 04, 2008

The Brewery is the largest Artists colony in Los Angeles. Twice a year, the Brewery opens its doors to the public, and yes, its that time again. I will be showing with Chris Tellez and Daniel Brooks. Please come by, and say hello!

About Me

"Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by those you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
-Mark Twain